Prince or Pauper
by Soffie101
Summary: Because of Mineral Town's declining state, the town now has themes to impress tourists. Claire is now a 'princess' and is joined by a prince and pauper. When she falls in love with both, who does she end up with? GrayXClaireXCliff
1. I'm a Princess?

**Okay, so here I am again. I'm not ever really dead on here, I think. I'm always on, just not posting. I read. XDDD  
I never thought I'd say that. I read. Wow...**

**But anyways, so I've grown up with Harvest Moon. It's like a Pokemon game for game companions, you know? No? Okay.**  
**But I've always loved Gray. Gray was always my favourite, and all the Gray figures.**  
**I was always like "HARVEST MOON. Y U NO ABLE TO MARRY BOYS?" because a lot of the games I had at the time were for boys. XDDD**

**And then like... A year later, I started liking Cliff too.**  
**Not as much...**

**So I thought I'd finally make a real fanfiction and not shorts about this little triangle thing going on with Claire, Cliff, and Gray.**

**So this story will be all over the place for a while, but bear with me. ;A;**

**(Writing this intro was horrible. The buttons were there but not visible.)**

* * *

It was my third year in Mineral Town...

Said my calendar.

Which was wrong. I had been living in Mineral town for five years in total. I moved in when I was eighteen, so I was turning twenty three this year.

Story is, I thought I'd get a handle of the events in this town and wouldn't need a calendar... I was wrong. It got too out of hand, so I bought a calendar that had up to years of days.

The days went by so fast here, it was like you could go through a whole year in one or two days...

So what I'm trying to say is that calendars with several years in them were handy.

But Mineral Town was getting unpopulated.

Ann left to get a more advanced scholarship when she turned nineteen. She applied for a big university and almost the whole town saw her off.

Karen's family moved to Forget Me Not Valley, finding they got more business there. They came every Saturday with merchandise, but it wasn't the same as the little shop in town.

Elli took a permanent apprenticeship up with Dr Hardy and moved out. Ellen passed away on my second year, Elli came back before, of course. Stu went along with Elli to Forget Me Not Valley afterwards.

Barley was only hanging on by a thread. He was getting weaker every day, and was reaching his ninety sixth birthday. He had decided on my fourth year to leave his shop to a training May and Rick, who volunteered to help. I help whenever I can.

Popuri and some farmer from Forget Me Not eloped, I think. She just disappeared one day with a note left saying "I'll be back one day, thanks for everything." and he never came back either. During the time, Lillian became healthy, but is over stressed about Popuri not contacting her.

Jack left everyone. He was sharing his farm with me for the first few years, but just ended up moving to a larger farm. Luckily for him, he didn't leave alone. Jack and Mary were in love at the time (And are now, don't get me wrong). He got married to her and they both left together a couple days after their wedding.

After Jack and Marry left, so did her parents, Anna and Basil. Basil wanted to explore and Anna just wanted to get out of the house.

Manna and Duke left on a vacation with their daughter, AJ. They left the winery to Cliff for the time being... But their vacation started two years ago. I have a feeling they won't be coming back.

So anyway, it left some of the residents. Not many compared to what we had, even if it was just a small sliver of people out of the way. The town wasn't populated as much before, so taking a small piece out of a small cake makes the cake smaller than before, I guess.

Thomas decided that this year would be the start of themes.

He thought if we had themes each year for our town, it could bring in tourists.

Which I thought would be fun.

A town with themed events and roleplaying citizens. It would be cool.

Which is why I was going to the main square. We were going to see what our theme was for the year.

Leaving my house at eight thirty. The event started at nine, but everyone got there early to talk to other people.

My animals were outside already. Three cows, four sheep, six chickens, one horse, and my dog.

I called my dog and pat his head. "You watch the farm while I'm gone, okay Dan?" I asked him. His tail wagged and he barked like a 'yes.'

It was actually very warm out for the fourth of spring. Usually in spring, it would be warm... But cool. Not like this. It was really sunny today, too, actually.

And the square was filled with people, like it usually was.

"Claire!"

I heard someone calling my name as I entered the square. It was Kai, goofing off with everyone.

Kai had come on New Years because he knew themes were going to be chosen. He was going to be gone by the end of the week.

"Hey Kai. Hi guys." I said, greeting him, and then the rest.

It was just me left for the younger women. The bachelors and me.

I think if I had to pick my best friends out of them, it would be Gray and Cliff.

Cliff was that understanding friend. He was always there. He was pretty shy at first, but opened up after a while. Cliff wasn't bad on the eyes, either. He was always trying to make you smile in his subtle ways. Really, Cliff was just the guy that everyone wanted to be liked by.

Gray was another story. He was nice, but was cold a lot of the time. He was really a gentleman though. He just got flustered too easily, so he tried to hide everything away. Before Ann left, she called me his "door stopper" because I started opening him up, as well as make him act differently with me. Gray can't close up around me.

"Claire, we were waiting for you, your highness." Rick said, bowing a bit in front of me.

Rick, Gray, Cliff, and Kai were there. Trent was probably in the clinic.

I laughed which was followed by speech. "Not that I mind being called a princess," Kai nudged Gray, "but what's this?"

Rick pulled me to the sign.

There was a notice on there from Thomas.

"Greetings townsfolk... And Claire."

Thomas was a jerk. He didn't consider me worthy to be a townsfolk yet.

"This is our first annual theme, but because I won't be there this year, I'm going to set out two. If there are two, more the fun, more the publicity, and I might hear about it! This year's themes are love, and royalty and whatnot. Check below to see your status!"

Thomas... You've... This wasn't what I was expecting at all.

I almost didn't want to read anymore of it.

But I had to see who was who...

I read a bit of the list. Only the parts with me and my friends. Outloud.

"Dr Trent... King.

Cliff... Pauper.

Rick... Servant.

Kai... Pauper.

Gray..."

I looked over at Gray before reading it. He glanced at me and started walking away.

"Oh no you don't, you're handling it just like we did." Kai pushed him right back beside me.

Our hands slightly touched there, and honestly, I don't think I've ever seen Gray flush that read before.

I haven't ever touched him, actually...

"Gray is a..." I was expecting a servant role or a pauper. "Prince."

Gray wasn't the princely type. At all. If anyone was a prince, switch Cliff and Gray. That would be perfect.

"So, your highness, how would you like to spend the day?" Cliff said, taking my hand and playfully kissing it.

I decided to go along by wiping his hand away.

"How dare a peasant touch me."

He actually looked hurt for a minute. "Cliff, I didn't mean..."

I couldn't finish because he snatched me in his arms and started running towards the stairs to the beach.

"Last one to the ocean doesn't get to throw Claire in!" he yelled.

The boys followed.

I swear, I was just another guy to them. It didn't matter, really, I didn't mind it. It just meant I was another one of the group.

Didn't stop me from refusing though. "Cliff, you wine head, put me down!" I lightly banged on his back and kicked my legs.

It was never comfortable to be launched over someone's shoulder.

I watched the boys for the slight time we were running.

Cliff was actually really strong. I could actually feel it. He was doing a good job in keeping his full strength in, because if not, I'd be dead.

Kai was pushing Rick, trying to be in front of him.

Rick was equally pushing Kai back, the same objective. Rick was more of a gentleman, but that didn't stop his endless messing with me.

Gray was ahead of Cliff. He had long legs, and was a fast runner to add to that. I guess... He did look like a prince. If he took off his cap, maybe it would enhance that image.

Cliff threw off his and my shoes and set me down on my feet in the ocean. Gray had already made it in.

"RICK'S LAST!" Kai yelled, running up.

"YOU WISH!" Rick tackled Kai into the water.

I waited to see what would happen before trying to escape being thrown in with them.

Nothing really but Cliff cheering on Rick in their wrestle, and Gray watching.

He suddenly turned to me though.

"Hey, Cliff...?" he said. Cliff turned, his attention averted from the fight. Rick and Kai stopped to hear what he was going to say, too.

"Yeah?"

"Try and stop me." he said as he was putting on his shoes. At the last minute, he grabbed my shoes as well as me and started running.

I heard Cliff laughing behind us. "Rick, your princess is eloping with another prince!"

That made me blush a bit. Eloping with Gray? I wasn't like Popuri...

I looked up at him.

He was like Cliff; he was attractive. I was probably the only one that saw him that way, seeing as I was one of the only ones that had seen him without his hat.

That was actually when I had my first kiss, too...

* * *

**Derp: Derp. You should write a chapter about Gray and Claire's first kiss.**

**Derpknownasme: Derp. I totally should.**

**Derpknownasanotherone: And Cliff?**

**Derpknownasme: Some other time, but yeah. |D**

**So anyways... Hope you enjoyed. 8D**


	2. Watch Fireworks With Me!

__**So chapter twooooo...**

**Someone reviewed my story and pulled up some things I'd like to mention.**

**My grammar and spelling are off in some places, I know. Half of it is my fault(I'm SOOOO lazy, but I'm almost always swamped with stuff so my writing is half ashed), half of it because I work with Vocaloid and Utau. To do that correctly, your computer has to be in Japanese.**

**To add to that, my computer's pretty old for these day computers.  
So my spell and grammar checkers are off. A LOT.  
I can write things like "I think I still love him," as it says here, and it will want to correct it as "I think me still love him."**

**CAVEMAN SPEAK.**

**(Read more at the bottom) Anyways, enjoy.**

* * *

**_Year two - Summer_**

_"Just ask me to the stupid fireworks festival." I said, pushing him closer to the tree._

_Gray blushed further, pulling the brim of his cap down. "I don't come hang out here to be pushed against a tree."_

_Gray and I talked under the tree on my ranch every Thursday._

_"Well Gray, we're the only ones without dates, so we should watch together and call it a date. You know, brag to some of our friends."_

_"No."_

_"Come on!"_

_"No!"_

_"But I already told Ann you were going with me three days ago!"_

_He stopped talking for a minute._

_"That would explain why she's been on me for the past three days... But no, I'm not going with anyone."_

_I pouted, pushing my forehead against his. "Gray, come on. Would you really leave your best friend dateless?"_

_"Yeah."_

_This wasn't fair. It was my second year in Mineral Town, and Gray was my best friend. He couldn't do this to me, right? Me of all people._

_To add to it, I kinda liked him... In a romantic way, not just a friendship..._

_"You'd go with Mary..." I said, pulling away. It was probably true, but Jack was going with her. They had been evenly flirting since he moved in at age fifteen, he tells me._

_Gray flinched. He was probably embarrassed by that comment, but it was written all over his face that he was hiding something like that. "You know that's not true."_

_"Honestly, I don't know." I confessed. Hiding something, as I said, I didn't know what it was. It could have been a secret love for Mary; he looked at her differently then other people. Actually, I was sure of it, he did like her. He could have loved someone else, though. The most likely though, one out of one hundred chances it wasn't, would be Mary. There was only a small chance that he would be looking at me._

_Gray left an hour later, three hours earlier then usual. It was probably because I made him feel uncomfortable... If Gray shut down, whether it be because of anger or sadness (or anything else, for that matter), he was done. You'd have to give him some space for him to cool down._

_So I went back to my farm work. I didn't have much to do other than pick a few weeds and milk another cow. It was only 1:23pm._

_But while milking that cow, I couldn't stop thinking about Gray. He did like her, didn't he? So there was no room for me. Jack liked Mary, and Mary liked him back, so Gray wasn't in there either. We were one and the same, but Gray didn't see that one girl that could bring him happiness as much as the one he was chasing. Maybe even more._

_"Claire, you're missing the bucket." I heard Jack saying behind me. I looked back at him and then did a double take on my bucket. I was missing it... Probably for a while, looking at the milk splattered ground. I only had a small amount of milk in the bucket._

_"Oops..." I said, taking the half glass, maybe, of milk and standing up. "She's done, anyways."_

_I lied, of course._

_Jack stared at me. "Aren't you usually out with Gray at this time?" he asked me. "I'm with Mary, but I come home an hour before Gray leaves. And I came back early."_

_"He had some work to do."_

_"On Thursday?" he asked back, seeing as Thursday was his day off. Jack knew that long before I did._

_"Why do you care?" I asked, pushing him away and walking away._

_Jack followed. I swear, he was like our dog, Dan. If you walked away from the pup, Dan followed. You walk away from Jack, he would follow too._

_"Come on, Claire. What's up with you and Gray?" Jack continued his job of annoying me._

_Really, Jack was always like this. And I knew this because, as little people in Mineral Town knew (because we didn't say anything), Jack was my older brother. Not that much older. He was two years older, so..._

_People thought we were relatives, just not as close as siblings. We didn't look anything alike, so it wasn't that surprising to know that. People probably thought we were cousins of some sort._

_"Nothing."_

_"Then what's this?" he held up a small, folded piece of paper._

_It wasn't much. It was just a folded up piece of paper. It was exactly just that._

_"I don't know. What is it?" I asked back._

_He smirked and instantly, I knew he was messing with me since he came back from the library. "I passed Gray on my way back and he gave it to me. I peeked."_

_He handed the paper to me._

_Inside had messy writing (Gray's messy writing) that read "You win. Seven. Same spot as last year?"_

_I smiled to myself. I knew what it meant. I had a date at seven tomorrow for the fireworks festival. But really, Gray? To be so cheesy to pass on a note?_

_"Good luck, sis." Jack said, taking the bucket and going back to milk that cow. He understood what it meant too. His act was officially over._

_"Nice dumb act, dummy!" I called back. He waved his hand behind him to basically say 'thanks, now get to work.'_

_I slipped the note in my pocket and went to cook dinner for us. Jack was a horrible cook, so I did it._

_I smiled to myself. It might have been cheesy, but he said yes, nonetheless._

_The next night couldn't have come any slower. The work on the ranch took three hours max, and Jack and I started work every day at six. It was hanging around the house from nine until seven._

_Dinner was eliminated, too. Jack was invited to Mary's house for dinner by Anna, so he left an hour early, and I didn't need to worry about him. He was a big boy._

_That didn't stop him from eating a sandwich on his way out._

_Jack was in love with, if not Mary, food. He could eat three times his weight and still be hungry. That was over exaggerated, but you get the point._

_But I didn't eat that much. My stomach had too many butterflies in it to eat. I was going on a 'date' with Gray. Really, it would just be friends hanging out with a title of a date so we didn't seem like losers. I'd think about it as a date enough for the both of us, though._

_We weren't going down to the beach like everyone else._

_That was a lie. Mary ad Jack weren't going to the beach either. They were going to the mountain to look up at the moon._

_But Gray and I were going to watch the fireworks like we did last year with our group of Cliff, Rick, Karen, and Popuri and us. We were going to sit up on top of the barn. It was close enough to see the lights and far enough for the sound to be muffled enough to bear it. It was what Gray meant by "same spot as last year" in his note._

_When Jack was seventeen, so three years ago, he had Gotz redo the roof of the barn. He flattened the top so it would be pleasant to hang out up there (The roof is still curved around it, though). There was a ladder at the back of the barn so you could climb up, as well as a little pull compartment where you could put things like blankets in there. That's actually what I put up there, just in case. It was summer, but the night got a bit chilly sometimes._

_Anyways, I was sitting upside down on the couch, watching some TV. The animals were inside their right places, and I was just waiting to Gray to get here. Jack always scolded me for sitting this way. So did Dr Trent. They always talked about the blood rushing to my head. I didn't care though. It was comfortable._

_Waiting for Gray could take a million years. He was never late, I was just really impatient._

_Suddenly, the phone rang. "If Gray's cancelling..." I started thinking out loud. If that was him saying he was cancelling... He'd get it tomorrow._

_I answered the phone. "Hello? Claire speaking."_

_"Hi... It's me..."_

_Cliff was on the other line. It wasn't usual for Cliff to call me, but he still did every once in a while. We usually talked in person instead._

_"Hey Cliff. What's up?" I asked. He was stuttering on his words, but that was typical for Cliff. He was getting better though. I guess he was opening up to me!_

_"I just wanted to know if you had a date for tonight. If you don't, you can come hang out with me and Ann." he replied silently._

_"That would be fun, but Gray and I are hanging out tonight. Sorry, Cliff."_

_Our conversation, as quiet and shy Cliff was, lasted a long time. When I picked up the phone, it was six thirty. Now, it was five minutes before eight. Cliff and Ann were heading out to watch the fireworks on the beach._

_Gray still wasn't around._

_I decided to go on the barn by myself._

_I was a bit upset, I mean he still wasn't here. Did he stand me up? This was a side of Gray I had never seen before._

_Climbing up the ladder was oddly saddening. It was like there was a weight onn my shoulders._

_It was like I was leaving him behind, even though I wasn't, and if Gray went to the house, I'd be able to see and call him over._

_And there sat a strawberry blond boy looking up at the stars._

_I hadn't seen him walking up to the barn, or going up the ladder until now._

_"You're a bit late." he smiled._

_I felt embarrassed. Of course Gray was already here. He was probably here since seven, waiting for me up here. I didn't see him walking up though, and Dan would have barked when he walked onto the property. I hadn't heard any barking... I still felt really bad._

_"Sorry." I replied, blushing a bit._

_He waved his hand towards him, telling me to get up and closer. When I sat beside him, he went to my back. I went to turn around, but Gray held my shoulders so I couldn't, only replying with a "just wait a second."_

_"Whatever you're doing, I can easily push you off this roof." I said to warn him. Gray might have been nineteen, but I was eighteen and not mentally ready for anything. He laughed a bit, moving my hair._

_"I'm not going to try anything on you." he said, continuing._

_Only a second after, I felt something cold on my neck. Looking down, it was a silver chain._

_And it led to a small, heart shaped locket. The heart, unlike the chain, was gold with a small mystrile stone in the middle. When I opened the locket, it was silver inside again._

_It was really pretty. I seriously felt like crying. I was really happy. I was so grateful._

_'Careful Claire, don't lose character,' I thought to myself. I didn't want to scare him._

_"You're pretty cheesy, Gray. But thanks..." I said, staring into the locket. He was blushing, and a lot. I was, too, though._

_"It's not perfect, but I hope you like it. It's probably the best thing I've made, anyways."_

_The look he gave me made me feel like I was melting. It was time to finally see if he could accept me like he could others._

_If he made me a necklace, he had to care about me a bit, right?_

_I leaned in and kissed him._

* * *

**So if you didn't pick it up, this was a flashback. XDDD**

**I know it's still all over, but I have my reasons.**

**Anyways, the same person said a lot and one of those things was about the mayor hating Claire, but making her a princess. As well as Kai's role being a pauper could have been prince.**

**I have my reasons. ;D I just don't want to spoil anything.**

**Also, remember this is a GrayClaireCliff fanfiction.**

**I changed the main characters to just Claire because as much as there is Cliff and Gray, it's confusing, kind of in that really-yeah.  
The reason Gray was up there in the first place was I have a fiftey thousand page long plan for this whole story and it mainly centered around Gray more then Cliff, but I've added stuff to it this afternoon so... Changed up!**

**Hope you enjoyed, anyways~**


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